Her CEO Stalker and Her Second Chance Mate Chapter 85

Briar

“Briar baby, I know this is hard, but I need you to calm down.” Carter’s voice was soothing, stern, but laced with empathy. I felt the anger and tension ebb, as the presence settled within me, but not as deeply as it had been burrowed before. I shook my head, and my thoughts cleared. Lana’s shoulders sagged in relief. I scrubbed my face with my hands, letting out a breath.

“Ads?”

“I’m fine, Misty.” I lied. She didn’t need to worry. “If anything else, I’m just more than resolved to end him in every way I can. He wants to make my life miserable; two can play that game. We need to go through the evidence. I have a plan. We need to sort the information from what you will leak and what I can provide to all of his potential clients and current business partners. They need to know who this man really is.” 

I was subtly aware of Lana murmuring to Carter on the phone before she sat back down beside me. When I looked over to her, only concern etched her features. Her fear, or was it shock from earlier, was now gone. Maybe it was my imagination getting the better of me?

‘Are you ok?’ she mouthed. I shrugged. Part of me felt like I was going insane, another part cowarded in fear not just at Creedon’s vow but at whatever the fuck was going on inside me, and yet another was bracing with enthusiastic joy for the havoc my brian was intending to cause Creedon. I’d lost my sanity along the way somewhere.

An hour later I had a list of emails and contacts pulled from the drives I took from my old computer, sorted on a spreadsheet, as well as a drafted letter to the Lords and Sons I would revise tomorrow and forward to my contact with them. I had sent their secretary a short email letting her know who I was and that the proof and an explanation of my disappearance were coming. That they alone would know the truth. I wasn’t going to delve into my personal grievances with these correspondences. Creedon’s own profane business actions would speak loud enough for me to get the job I needed done. Misty had her workload and I had mine. I had taken control of the situation she had planned to do herself because only I could cut him off limb from limb in the business world. Lana had finished the plate of food long ago and sat curiously listening to all my plans as she ate. I closed the laptop and sighed, leaning back into the couch. Tucker walked across the back of it and I scooped him up.

“You're pretty smart,” Lana said.

I shrugged. My mind began to swim. What had happened to me?“Lana?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry for whatever that was. I don’t know what's happening to me.” I confided while I apologized, for what I wasn’t sure.

She threw her arm over my shoulders and pulled me down so my head rested in her lap. She pulled my hair out of the ponytail and ran her fingers lazily through it from scalp to ends. It felt good, and I relaxed as Tucker circled and curled up next to me, and Rosie hopped up on the couch and found a spot behind my bent legs, her chin resting on my thigh.

“Don’t worry about it, what did it feel like?”

I thought about my words as I played back the moments.

“I don’t know. I think I’m going insane. One moment, all I felt was paralyzing fear; the next, all my thoughts turned to insurmountable violence and anger. That's not like me. I was the kid who didn’t fit in, the one they made fun of, and it never bothered me enough to get mad. Now I have this fury coursing so deep inside of me; it's like a beast trying to be set free. Sometimes it settles under my skin, it's stronger than I am, it was there when Miranda tried to strike me, an instinct I didn’t know I possessed.” Lana just listened and nodded. I closed my eyes and drifted off as the therapeutic feel of her fingertips ran through my hair, and the crash of the adrenaline at seeing him lulled me to sleep.